My name is Julie, and I am going to be sharing my Dual Credit at Home journey with you!
First off, I’m 16 years old, and I’m the seventh child in my family of 10. I’ve always been homeschooled, and my schooling has included high school subjects along with taking some classes at the junior college. I love working with children, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and I have a beautiful Australian Shepherd named Maximus.
I was 12 when I took my first CLEP exam - though College Board now requires that you be 13 in order to purchase an exam - and 13 when I took my first on-campus class at the college (my dad had gone back to school, so we went together). I currently have 67 college credits from the classes and CLEP exams that I have taken.
When I started taking classes, I was thinking I’d like to be a Physical Therapist Assistant. However, over the last year I’ve realized that teaching is more my cup of tea - so no more Anatomy and Physiology for me 🙂 This semester I am taking my last on-campus class, Professional Speech & Communication, and LOTS of college-level exams.
This year one of my goals is to earn my BA degree with a concentration in history and English, and my goal is to help you see that you could do it too! One big incentive is that my parents said I can get my driver’s license after I complete 100 college credits.
My mom and I researched the process of becoming a certified teacher here in Texas, and all you need is a bachelor’s degree (in whatever your heart desires) and to be certified to teach. I decided to stop taking the semester-long on-campus classes and complete my bachelor’s degree using the credit-by-exam method! Seeing that I’ve got two brothers and a sister that have completed their BA degrees (at 21, 18, and 17 years old) and that my mom has now put the lesson plans into written Study Plans for people to use – the path is laid out for me! So to reach my goal I have to go from 67 to 120 credits in 12 months!
I’ll be using Dual Credit at Home’s Study Plans to complete the General Education Requirements for Charter Oak State College. We have chosen Charter Oak because they are regionally accredited (that’s really important) and because they are so flexible in their credit-by-exam policy. I’ll be able to earn the rest of my credits taking college-level exams like CLEP, DSST, a GRE and possibly a UEXCEL exam along with their Cornerstone and Capstone courses.
I have taken three CLEP exams so far this month (January, 2015) - College Composition, Social Sciences & History, and College Mathematics. I followed the Study Plans, but I really went through them quickly. Since I had just taken College Algebra and English Composition at the college in Fall 2014, I figured it was a good time to go ahead and take them.
My one-semester English class had earned me three credits, but I’d have to take 16 weeks of the second semester of English to earn the remaining three credits. Or I could earn them by studying for and passing the 90 minute college-level exam that cost $100. They call it “prior learning assessment,” so I did the prior learning at my pace. It was the same for the College Mathematics test – the 90 minute exam or a 16 week course.
It just boils down to either learning the material at MY pace and proving it by passing the exam OR learn the material over 16 weeks.
I passed College Mathematics, and I just received my passing results for College Composition (since this test includes writing two essays that must be graded manually, you have to wait for your results to come in the mail). Now I can’t say math is my favorite subject, but it really is better if you understand it - and I was starting to do that about half way through my Algebra class. But now I am completely done with math for the rest of my life (at least “official” math assignments – they keep telling me that I’ll do some kind of math every day in real life). And that’s OK with me; all college math requirements have been met since I’m not a math major!
I took four different CLEP exams a couple of years ago – when I was 12 and 13. The first one I took was Analyzing and Interpreting Literature, which I passed (barely, but give me a break - I was 12 and it was freezing in that testing center ;P). Several months later I took US History I and Western Civilization I. I passed both of those as well. I also took US History II, but I failed it… twice. Understand that was BEFORE I had Study Plans to follow! I’ll be following the Study Plans and taking US History II again soon and I plan to crush that sucker!
As soon as I passed the two exams (Math and English) early this month, I printed off the Study Plans for the General CLEP Exam Social Sciences & History. I’m doing two things different than the Study Plans – I’m doing more than one day’s reading assignments each day, and I’m taking more practice exams than called for. My goal is always to score well above a “passing score” – which is the 50% percentile (meaning half the people that take the test do better and half do worse). Middle of the pack is no place to be!
You might be wondering why I would want to do school this way…I’ve heard people talk about student loans and how they were a real burden to them. I’m not taking on any student loans. And because I REALLY want to be a teacher, I want to be one sooner rather than later. I know I’m capable of doing better than the “average” expectations - all of us are actually.
Before my 18th birthday I’ll have completed my bachelor’s degree and my certification to teach! I hope detailing this year’s journey will be encouraging as you pursue YOUR passion!
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